Quick News

NRCS Projects See Completion

The USDA Natural Resources conservation Services (NRCS) has recently completed several projects with the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources.

• Cameron Creole Maintenance - The first two construction units of this project in Cameron Parish have been completed at a cost of $700,000. The project will provide a total of $3.7 million to maintain the structural works of the Cameron Creole Watershed, including water control structures and the 19-mile levee along the west shore of Calcasieu Lake.
• Cote Blanche Hydrologic Restoration - Construction was completed in January on this $5 million project located on 30,000 acres of fresh marsh in St. Mary Parish. The project is designed to reduce shoreline loss due to wave erosion and prevent interior marsh erosion by reducing excessive tidal fluctuation and rapid tidal exchange. 

Bill Good Named Conservation Professional for 1998

Bill Good, administrator of Louisiana's Coastal Restoration Division of the Department of Natural Resources, was named Conservation Professional for 1998 at the Governor's Conservation Awards banquet in February. The award selection committee cited Good's commitment to Coast 2050. Good was involved in every step of Coast 2050's development, from moderating public meetings and developing a plan outline, maps, graphs and charts, to ensuring public participation and communicating 2050's goals to the media.

Spectral Imaging Helps in Study of Hurricane Damage

Images obtained through a new technique developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are helping scientists in Louisiana understand the devastating effects of Hurricane Georges on the state's coastal areas.

The images were gathered by the Airborne Visible/ Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS), an instrument that measures 224 spectral channels and gives scientists a highly detailed look at what is happening on the surface of the earth in ways that are invisible to the naked eye. A flight crew from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration flew the instrument over the Chandeleur Island chain in late October 1998.

The AVIRIS data shows where sand moved and how vegetation was impacted by salt water as a result of Hurricane Georges. "The damage from Hurricane Georges on the Chandeleurs was as bad as that of Hurricane Camille almost 30 years ago," said Dr. Shea Penland of the University of New Orleans. "The imagery from the AVIRIS scanner gives us a great opportunity to understand the full extent of the hurricane's damage and look at ways to deal with it."